Andrew Redmayne ... young keeper earned plenty of plaudits for his performance against Newcastle. Source: News Limited
Melbourne Heart coach John Aloisi said promoting goalkeeper Andrew Redmayne to the starting line-up ahead of Clint Bolton was just the spark the team needed and the 23-year-old is only going to get better.
The Heart coach made the bold move to axe two-time best-and-fairest winner Clint Bolton for Redmayne, who has played just five A-League games with previous clubs Central Coast Mariners and Brisbane Roar.
| P | W | D | L | GD | Pts | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Central Coast | 14 | 9 | 3 | 2 | 13 | 30 |
| 2 | Adelaide | 14 | 9 | 1 | 4 | 7 | 28 |
| 3 | Western Sydney | 14 | 7 | 2 | 5 | 6 | 23 |
| 4 | Victory | 14 | 7 | 2 | 5 | -2 | 23 |
| 5 | Perth | 14 | 5 | 3 | 6 | 2 | 18 |
| 6 | Brisbane | 14 | 5 | 2 | 7 | 1 | 17 |
| 7 | Wellington | 14 | 4 | 4 | 6 | -1 | 16 |
| 8 | Newcastle | 14 | 5 | 1 | 8 | -9 | 16 |
| 9 | Heart | 14 | 4 | 3 | 7 | -3 | 15 |
| 10 | Sydney | 14 | 4 | 1 | 9 | -14 | 13 |
It paid off as Heart held on for an "ugly" win over Newcastle Jets to snap a three-game losing streak and lift them off the bottom.
Aloisi said axing his former teammate was an excruciating call, but one he had to make for the team's benefit.
"I had a couple of days to think how I could spark the team," Aloisi said.
"It was a tough decision because Clint's been our best player for two years, won the best-and-fairest, and it's not like he wasn't playing well.
"But I felt Redders deserved a chance, he'd played really well in pre-season and at training he's been great.
"I sat down with Clint and he's been really good with Redders the last couple of days, helping him out, and Redders played really well today. It's for him to lose. Let's hope he keeps performing like that."
The win, courtesy of Golgol Mebrahtu and Josip Tadic goals, was just Heart's fourth of the season.
"I said to the boys: 'We have to win no matter how we play and that was most important'," Aloisi said.
"Sometimes you need to win games ugly, I've seen so many other teams do it and it's about time we started doing it and we did it today.
"We've played some really good football. It doesn't always show, sometimes you have to grind out results to get confidence up. I believe in what I'm doing, it's just a matter of making sure the boys keep believing.
"That performance, and I'm not talking about the way we played because the second half we didn't play great, but the way we grinded out the result we haven't been able to do all year."
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